Winter and snow arrived in early December in Madison County. This flock of House Finches gathered in a snow covered pine tree to find shelter from the cold and snow. They make the tree look like a decorated Christmas tree. See Snow Birds to see how the birds fared in the snow and frost of northern Madison County, as captured by Mick and Connie Hardy.

A female Downy Woodpecker pauses at the peanut feeder. A smaller size and relatively shorter bill distinguishes the Downy Woodpecker from the very similar Hairy Woodpecker. For a comparison of these two species, see Downy and Hairy Woodpeckers.

Sheltered by the large Sycamore tree where he makes his winter roost, Junior dozes on a rare December day with clear skies and warm sun. He has already endured four winter storms and is ready for some milder weather. For the story of this Barred Owl and his family, see Barred Owl Family History.

A White-breasted Nuthatch stops at an ice-covered bird feeder. With so much ice and snow covering their natural food, the birds have been more dependent than usual on feeders for their food. See Feeder Birds I for pictures of feeder birds from Mick and Connie Hardy in northern Madison County.

A Carolina Wren has just landed on the peanut feeder looking for food. A half-foot of snow covers the ground, and most of its natural food supply. For a look at more visitors to the popular peanut dispenser see Feeder Birds II.

This small flock of geese has appeared among the Canada Geese who regularly graze in Shadyside Park, near the lake. See Mystery Geese for more pictures of these unusual birds.

Screen Savers

This month, Birds of Madison County brings you a high resolution picture. Clicking on the image below will cause the corresponding high resolution image to be downloaded to your browser. You may save this image by dragging it to your desktop or using the "SAVE" command on the File menu. This image is large and may require a little time to download, depending on the speed of your Internet connect. The size of the picture in pixels and of the file in bytes is given for the picture.

AOL Users should use Internet Explorer instead of AOL's browser to download this images.

This image is suitable for use as a screen saver or desktop. It may also be printed in large sizes for personal use.

Wetlands at Sunset

A family of Canada Geese makes their way single file to their anchorage for the night as the winter sun nears the horizon.

2400 X 1600 pixels; 908K Bytes.

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Award Winning Web Site

We were honored to receive the East Central Indiana Audubon Society's Conservation Education Award for the work done through this web site. We thank the Audubon Society for this recognition and promise to continue our efforts to bring you interesting bird-related pictures.

We hope you enjoy the pictures. Your comments are welcome and may be sent to us at this address:

Tom and Jean Harbron

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Birds of Madison County thanks the Midwest Antique Fruit Jar & Bottle Club for providing the hosting web site.

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